Below, Dorie writes about two issues: campaign
finance and land use. Personally, I'd love to see 100%
public financing of political campaigns. As I've
heard someone say before, "bring it on!"
On development Dorie mentions Steve Berg's writings on
Vancouver. I would suggest that high density
development around transportation corridors (that have
transit lines like Hiawatha) is exactly what
Minneapolis needs to move towards a model similar to
Vancouver or other world class livable cities.
Of course, this development must be done right.
Density for density's sake could turn out to be dense.
I really believe that most Minneapolitans on either
side of the development debate have the same end in
mind. I've talked about transit oriented development
with many in agreement and then have seen the same
individuals rail (pun intended) against proposed
developments that fit the transit oriented model.
In my conversations with others, it usually boils down
to two issues: the height of the building and the
resulting traffic impacts for the surrounding
neighborhoods. If you want less traffic/parking
issues in the neighborhood you need high quality
transit. If you want high quality transit, you need
high density development around transit lines. If you
want to maintain livability in our growing
neighborhoods you need to merge land-use planning with
transportation planning.
I believe we can have higher density along with
livable neighborhoods. Using the Ackerberg proposal
for the Lagoon theater as an example we have two
choices for that site if everyone agrees that higher
density is appropriate. The choices are a taller
building with public open space or a shorter
building filling up the entire land parcel with no
public open space and no space for a transit station.
Both scenarios can achieve the same density, but the
impacts on the surrounding neighborhoods are vastly
different. A transitless, no open space for
pedestrians to circulate model would result in the
exact opposite of what Vancouver has achieved.
Maybe the city should create zoning overlay districts
for our major transportation corridors that guide
their development more closely. Maybe this already
exists? I doubt it. At the very least we need to
continue this conversation so that Minneapolitans know
exactly what trade-offs we're talking about when
discussing development.
I've copied the three paragraphs that led to the above
rambling below. Sometimes I'm confused myself. Let's
talk through the confusion.
Matty Lang,
Central
--- Dorie Rae Gallagher <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Minneapolis may not quite have reached the point
> of Albuquerque, but we desperately need to reform
> how we finance municipal elections. This summer, the
> Star Tribune featured a Steve Berg commentary about
> how Vancouver bucked development trends to build a
> vibrant, healthy city with a focus on
> neighborhood-friendly, pedestrian-oriented
> development. In other words, we need reform not just
> because of ethical considerations, but because of
> the results we want to achieve.
>
> While the practice of city council candidates
> bankrolling their campaigns with developers' money
> is perfectly legal, it is plainly wrong and is also
> a bad way to do development. Continuing along this
> path will yield ill-planned development that doesn't
> fit the character of our neighborhoods, and
> increases traffic congestion and parking problems.
>
> Our city politics have become so entangled with
> the interests of developers that former Council
> President Dan Cohen believes a moratorium on new
> development is needed to give Minneapolis time to
> straighten out its campaign finance system.
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